


you'll meet me halfway

by gr324221



Category: Death Stranding (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26853844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gr324221/pseuds/gr324221
Summary: Operating a small-scale coffee shop in the D.C. area certainly wasn't where Sam anticipated ending up, but it's where he found himself nonetheless.or; sam bonds with fragile over the hatred of a man he's just met.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	you'll meet me halfway

**Author's Note:**

> title is from "clearest blue" by chvrches. i just love chvrches.
> 
> rated T for... swears.
> 
> anyway this is really profoundly stupid and i wasn't going to post it, but i started it months ago and i went to start writing something for another fandom, found it sitting in my drafts, and decided to just... throw it out there. i don't even go here, i just love the game and the characters. and i forgot the other thing i was going to write, so this is all i have now.
> 
> this is meant to be really lighthearted and i'm just obsessed with the whole "found family" thing with sam and the crew, ya feel?

Operating a small-scale coffee shop in the D.C. area certainly wasn't where Sam anticipated ending up, but it's where he found himself nonetheless. His mother had built “ _Bridges_ ” from the ground up, dedicated her life to it... but for Sam, it was just an odd-job he took in his youth to keep gas in his bike. As a 19-year-old, being stuck there forever seemed like a nightmare, but now as a widower and the father of a baby girl, it gave him a sense of peace; it not only kept food on the table for him and Lou (and Deadman, occasionally), but he was making enough to give them a cozy life, with plenty leftover to set aside.

Taking over wasn't as bad as he expected. Bridget had left behind a pretty all-star crew that didn't miss a beat in getting him up to date on how she ran the place after he'd been gone for two decades. Hell, they ran the place on their own in the time between Bridget's death and when Sam finally felt emotionally ready to come back to _Bridges_. Sam didn't know any of them at first, aside from John, who'd been his mother's second-in-command for as long as he could remember.

He'd met Deadman first; not because of his role at the shop, but because he was renting the basement in Bridget's -now _Sam's_ \- house. He hadn't realized that the house came with a tenant when he decided to move in instead of selling it outright, and although he'd originally planned on finding the quickest and most painless way of evicting him, he found himself oddly endeared by the man. Deadman proved invaluable when it came to reintegrating Sam into their workplace, and while John typically handled everything behind the scenes, Deadman kept his ear to the ground and was always the first to give Sam new ideas for things they could be doing differently to stay “trendy”. He also seemed to be gifted when it came to creating new concoctions they could add to their list of specialty drinks, and he seemed to adore Lou more than anything, so Sam didn't mind having him around after the first few months.

Målingen was another invaluable member of their crew. She and her sister, Lockne, had worked there briefly while in college, but quickly moved on to bigger and better things. Still, Målingen was a genius when it came to mechanical engineering and Sam wasn't ashamed to call her whenever one of their machines broke down. It seemed like she could fix them just by glaring at them, though her fixes always seemed to include various upgrades that Sam didn't know they needed, and she always gave them a “friends and family” rate for her services, so... Sam considered her part of the Bridges family.

There was also Heartman, who was a good employee through-and-through, even though he'd taken a liking to providing Sam with unsolicited emotional support. Then there were the part-timers; William, Viktor, Nick... and a few others that came in sparingly enough that even a year later, Sam would have to glance at their name-tags to be sure he got their names right.

Then there was Fragile.

Fragile was the newest member of their crew, and the first that Sam himself hired. He'd had run-ins with her in his first few months running _Bridges_. Nothing bad, though she _was_ a competitor, which always put Sam on guard, but she was always surprisingly pleasant. But then she got sick. He wasn't privy to the details, nor did he care the learn them, but he knew that she spent months in the hospital. _Fragile Espresso_ was an even smaller shop than _Bridges_ , which she ran largely by herself, and it just couldn't survive, not when she had to tear through her savings just to keep her apartment. When they shut their doors, Sam felt for her. He knew that the business had been her fathers. It was even her _namesake_. John, ever the businessman, gently reminded him that Fragile _was_ their biggest competitor, and with her shop out of business, it could only mean good things for _Bridges_ , but... Sam wasn't a great businessman. As soon as he got word that she was out of the hospital, he shot her a text. Simple, and to the point: whenever she was ready, she'd always have a place at _Bridges_.

It was clear, in the beginning, that Fragile wasn't used to working for someone else. She had her own way of doing things, and even if they produced the same results, it took some time for her and the Bridges team to get on the same page. When they did, though, Bridges had never run more smoothly, which Sam found shocking, considering their team pretty much had it locked down to begin with. In addition to her skill at the job from decades of running her own business, she also brought in a slew of new customers from _Fragile Espresso_.

“It's flattering, you know,” she said quietly to Sam one afternoon on her lunch break, “that they come all this way to see me. Plenty of people were angry when the shop closed so suddenly; suppliers, mostly, but customers too. I'm glad to know that I didn't burn all of my _bridges_.”

Sam rolled his eyes at her cheeky smile.

* * *

Sam leaned against the counter, pretending to be busy while he distracted Fragile on the register, when an entering customer caught her attention.

“Shit,” she hissed. Sam raised a brow at her, intending to question what was wrong, but he didn't get the chance before the customer reached the counter.

“Fragile!” he called with a grin, just a bit too loud to be considered appropriate for the setting, “It's been while. How've you been?”

Sam was immediately put on edge. The man in front of him was tall and slim, with dusty brown hair and a hint of a southern twang. His appearance wasn't too out of place with the crowd Fragile had drawn in, with black-and-gold motorcycle gear and black eyeliner artfully smoked along his lashes; probably someone that Sam would've found attractive, if Fragile hadn't been glaring at him with murder in her eyes.

“What do you want, _Higgs_?” Her voice was low and steady, enough to keep from drawing the attention of the handful of customers in the shop, but laced with something sharp that Sam had never heard from her.

“Really, Fragile, there's no need for that,” he chuckled, putting his hands up in a submissive gesture, “it's just that my favorite coffee shop closed down! Then I found out that you'd made your way over to here, and I thought I'd stop in, see if this'll fill the void left in my heart when _Fragile Espresso_ closed its doors.” He placed a hand over his heart to emphasize his point. Fragile glared.

“Is there a problem here?” Sam loathed getting involved in interpersonal conflicts, especially where customers were involved, but Heartman was napping in the back room and Fragile looked like she needed assistance _now_ ; not necessarily for her own safety, Sam knew, but to keep her from jumping the counter and taking matters into her own hands. Fragile didn't acknowledge his intrusion and simply continued glaring.

“Uh, yes, I think so,” Higgs said slowly, eyeing Fragile in a way that told Sam that he _too_ was beginning to question his safety. “I just want to order a drink, but Fragile here seems to be unwilling to take my order. Are you a manager?”

“I'm Sam, the owner.”

“Nice to meet you, Sam,” he extended a hand, which went ignored. “It's a little rude of her to treat a customer this way, don't you think?” he continued in a stage whisper.

“You're not a customer. You haven't bought anything.”

“Wha-” Higgs started, raising his brows in exaggerated surprise, “I am _trying_ to buy something, but she won't take my order!”

Sam look at Fragile, who looked back at him with her arms crossed across her chest and a look which told him that there was a right and a wrong way to handle this situation, and she would let him know _promptly_ if he chose incorrectly. Later, Sam would consider this to be the exact moment that Fragile became a true member of the Bridges family. He didn't know who this 'Higgs' guy was, but Fragile didn't like him, and that was enough for him. He looked at her.

“Your call.”

She lifted her chin ever-so-slightly, clearly pleased with his answer. She turned to Higgs and thought for a moment before speaking.

“Fuck you, Higgs.”

Higgs, the unknowable asshole that he was, had the audacity to look terribly offended. He raised his brows again, faint amusement betraying his theatrics, and looked at Sam, gesturing at Fragile as if he expected Sam to do something, like scold or fire her. Sam didn't hesitate in his response.

“Yeah, fuck you, Higgs.”

**Author's Note:**

> i want to keep this lighthearted so i'm imagining that higgs' offense against fragile was something like he worked for her for a while but kept missing shifts at the most inopportune times until he finally just stopped showing up. or he was stealing beans. or literally anything else. i'm not saying i'll continue this but i want to keep my options open for involving higgs in a way that isn't terribly antagonistic, so it's gotta be something silly. also, i refer to die-hardman as john because there is a limit to what kind of naming-silliness i'm willing to include in my modern au, and i just can't do it. 
> 
> anyway thanks for reading, i love you <3


End file.
